A soother, as defined in British Standard BS EN 14001-1:2002, the English language version of European Standard EN 1400-1 (September 2002), is an article intended for satisfying the non-nutritive sucking need of children. Soothers are also known as pacifiers or babies' dummies.
Soothers typically comprise: a teat, namely a flexible nipple designed to be placed in the mouth; a shield positioned at the rear of the teat to reduce the likelihood of the soother being drawn entirely into the mouth, and with ventilation openings to ensure that a child can continue to breath with the teat in its mouth; and a ring and/or knob on the side of the shield opposite from the direction in which the teat extends, allowing the soother to be grasped by an adult. The aforesaid Standard requires that the teat be hollow and filled with air. The soother will accordingly usually have a plug closing a neck of the teat and serving to secure it to the shield.
Babies are born with a sucking reflex. Newborn and premature babies are subject to the post traumatic stress of labour, especially after medical assistance with forceps, ventouse or Caesarean section. Even for babies born after a trouble free natural labour, their skull will have been squeezed to allow it to pass through the birth canal, and the skull needs to rebalance and relieve strain patterns. This is all the more so for babies born with medical assistance. The sucking reflex assists in this process.
The embodiments of soother-resembling medical articles described hereinbelow and incorporating the teachings of this disclosure were developed following the Inventor's professional observation that babies, particularly those born after medical intervention, derive particular benefit from sucking on a little finger of a parent or a nurse or midwife, with the finger reaching to the roof of the mouth or hard palate. The portion of the skull lying immediately above this region of the mouth comprises the palatine and maxilla bones with two sutures, namely the median palatine suture and transverse palatine suture, which in turn influence the sphenoid bone which overlies this structure and extends to either side of the mouth. The benefit achieved by sucking a finger is believed to be because balance of this structure including the palatine, maxilla and sphenoid bones is crucial to the mechanics of the skull, as this structure lies at the centre of the head. Six out of twelve cranial nerves pass through it and attach directly into the spinal cord. The pituitary gland, which serves a master controlling function on the other endocrine glands, sits immediately above the sphenoid bone. Strain patterns occur in the head and spine during pregnancy or at birth and plagiocephaly can arise, due to the flexibility present in the skull, even after birth from following the guidance to always place a baby on its back to avoid the possibility of cot death syndrome. If left uncorrected strain patterns and plagiocephaly contribute to other physical and emotional challenges of childhood, such as Dyslexia, ADHD, headaches, colic, irregular head shape, irritable children, reflux, poor sleeping patterns, emotional issues and lack of growth. Medical intervention such as cranial adjustment and chiropractic may result in dramatic improvement. The embodiments of soother-resembling medical articles described hereinbelow may provide an alternative to such intervention, or additional assistance, using no more that the baby's natural sucking reflex to achieve an effect.
Research has shown that when a baby's skull and body rebalance, it will relax, sleep and start to thrive. However, as a baby grows, strain patterns such as dips and ridges in their heads may re-establish. Use of the embodiments of soother-resembling medical articles described hereinbelow may help to keep their heads and spine open and mobile and avoid tension building up in the bones of the head, the meninges and spine.